


Immortality

by senashenta



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Rise of the Guardians (2012), Rise of the Guardians/How to Train Your Dragon
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Frostcup - Freeform, Gen, Hijack, Hijack Week, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-24
Updated: 2014-10-24
Packaged: 2018-02-22 09:49:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2503475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/senashenta/pseuds/senashenta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a price to immortality that Jack Frost knows only too well; watching those he loves with all his heart grow old, wither and die.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Immortality

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the December 2013 HiJack Week Challenge Day 4 (Nightmares.)

****

**IMMORTALITY  
By Senashenta**

Jack had nightmares every single night without fail. 

They were always the same: once-auburn hair, greyed with age, slick and plastered to a weathered face. Formerly-vibrant green eyes dull and flat as the life left them bit-by-bit. And thin, weak fingers holding onto his hand as he held tight, whispered soft assurances that everything would be alright and silently begged the Powers That Be to not take away his entire world. 

It had been a useless prayer. They had both known the day would come when Hiccup would leave him for a better place. They were lucky to have had the time together that they did—nearly sixty years of happiness before death came to claim the first dragon rider of Berk. 

Even now, so many years later, Jack hadn’t gone back to Berk, leaving its’ winters to the Old Man and Mother Nature herself. He still felt the heartache as if Hiccup had just died in his arms the day before. And the nightmares never faded, never waned, never went away. He woke every night, shivering and in dry sobs, usually with a black wing or tail curled around him—the only way Toothless could comfort him during those dark moments. 

So now, standing on the hill overlooking the village he had left so long ago, Jack had to force down the urge to fall into heartbroken tears. Instead he lifted one shaky hand to rest against Toothless’ head. The dragon whuffed softly and leaned sideways into him, ducking his head against Jack’s ribs and closing his eyes—this was as hard for him as it was for Jack. 

The graveyard was on the outskirts of town. 

Neither Jack nor Toothless had been there to visit Hiccup before. Jack had left Berk the morning after Hiccup’s passing, before the funeral or traditional burial—and Toothless had followed him. Jack had been surprised, at first, but soon found himself grateful for the familiar company. The pair of them, united in their cursed immortality, mourned together. 

“Hey, Hic.” 

Jack’s voice came out soft and a little hoarse, the hand not holding onto his staff lifting to touch against the cool headstone. He watched Toothless settle beside the grave, curling his tail around the marker, and had to blink against tears. 

“Sorry it’s taken me so long to get back here, I just…” 

The words broke off, then, dying in his throat. There was no reason for him to be talking to Hiccup here—not really. As per custom, Hiccup had been given a Viking burial, his body burned at sea—the grave he was currently standing over was empty, nothing more than a ceremonial representation of the man he had once loved. 

Still, Jack swallowed hard, then lowered himself down onto his knees. The hand on the headstone gripped tightly as he leaned his head forward against the cold marble. Empty or not, this place was the closest to where Hiccup rested that he would ever be able to get. 

_“I miss you.”_

One of Toothless’ wings flapped open, then folded around him and the tombstone. Then the Night Fury shifted around, tucking himself closer until the three of them were held together, as close as in life, but as cold as the winter snow around them. 

Jack closed his eyes, his staff laying on the ground by his side now and both hands up, pressed against Hiccup’s grave marker. Cool fingers traced the runes carved in the marble, imagining, for just a moment, the familiar, warm freckled skin that he hadn’t been able to see or touch in decades. 

Eventually, he slumped down to the ground, curled against Toothless’ side—and after a long while, he fell asleep like that. 

Only once Jack was deeply dreaming did Toothless raise his head, acknowledging the brief flutter of wind with a familiar chirp. Wide green eyes watched flurries whirl in the faint breeze, and the mostly-invisible, transparent hand that came to rest against the dragon’s nose was greeted with a happy purr. 

Then that same hand moved down to brush through white hair, fingers threading through the soft strands and brushing them back gently. 

And for the first time in nearly thirty years, Jack’s sleep was blessedly nightmare-free.


End file.
